A common feature provided by service providers is virtual local area networks (VLAN). One common service used with VLANs is virtual private LAN service (VPLS). VPLS provides private connections through the service provider's network connecting two or more customer sites. From the customer's perspective, the two or more sites of a VLAN appear to be on the same local LAN, despite the fact that the two or more sites are on separate networks in different geographic areas. In order for the service provider to provide a customer with a VLAN, the service provider must configure each of the provider's edge routers to which the customer's two or more network are to connect. The edge routers must be configured to be members of the same group (the group associated with the customer) and each of the edge routers in the group must be configured with the services that are to be supported by the group.
The initial configuration can be time consuming. Moreover, any change in either the group membership (e.g., adding or removing an edge router) or the supported services (e.g., adding or removing a service) requires that the configuration of each edge router in the group be updated. For example, if a new edge router is added to the group, the new router has to be added to each service at each router of the group.
Some providers may use the border gateway protocol (BGP) to at least partially simplify the update process. Using BGP, changes in the group may be made by updating a group membership list maintained at each router. Thus, BGP simplifies updates by not requiring that each service at each router also be updated.